Victim of the Defense

by Marianne Woolbert-Maxwell

  Lucy looked straight at Mattingly. “Yes I did. I co-owned the property.”

  “Your name was on the deed?”

  Lucy’s face reddened. “No, but I put money into it.”

  “The court found you didn’t deserve anything and awarded you nothing, isn’t that right, Ms. Hatfield?”

  Lucy acknowledged that the court gave her nothing. She tried to explain it was because her name was not on the property deed but Mattingly cut her off.

  “What about Dick Logan?” Mattingly peered at her over the top of his glasses. “He was a wealthy guy you dated, wasn’t he?”

  “He was a friend from college.” Lucy leaned back in the chair.

  “Didn’t he break up with you for the same reasons? He felt t you were after his money? A smile appeared on Mattingly’s face.

  “No, that is not correct. I ended the relationship,” Lucy said matter-of-factly.

  Mattingly got up from his seat, picked up his legal pad, and walked to the witness stand. He stopped right in front of Lucy. “So if he would appear in this court and say otherwise he would be lying?”

  Lucy paused for a moment. “He would be incorrect.”

  “So both these men are lying?”

  “Both these men are incorrect.”

  Megan felt a small wave of relief wash over her. She knew that juries don’t like it when witnesses call people liars and that Mattingly was hoping that was just what Lucy would do.

  “How did you meet Craig Tarkington?”

  “I met him in a study group when I was preparing to take the bar exam.”

  Mattingly took off his glasses and held them in his hand. “Mr. Tarkington is also from a very wealthy family, like your other gentleman friends, isn’t he?”

  “That’s what I understand.”

  “You never dated him?”

  Lucy shook her head and smiled. “No.”

  “You wanted to date him, didn’t you?” Mattingly inched closer to her. Megan could tell he was trying to invade Lucy’s space and intimidate her. Megan stood up. “Judge, I object to how close Mr. Mattingly is standing to Ms. Hatfield. He’s attempting to intimidate her.”

  Judge Crawford looked at Mattingly.

  “Sorry. That wasn’t my intention.” Mattingly stepped away from Lucy.

  “Move on, counsel.”

  “Did you or did you not want to date Craig Tarkington?”

  “In response to your question: No, I did not want to date Craig Tarkington.”

  “You didn’t pursue him and offer to tutor him for free?”‘

  “Certainly not.”

  Mattingly lowered his head a little, rubbed his chin, and then looked back at Lucy. “So if witnesses come in and testify that you were pursuing Craig Tarkington, they would be lying like Mr. Relford and Mr. Logan?”

  Lucy sat up straight and leaned forward. “Mr. Mattingly, if anyone says that I was pursuing Craig Tarkington, they are incorrect.”

  Mattingly walked to the defense table, leaned over, and said something to Tarkington, then turned back and looked at Lucy.

  “On the night of the alleged occurrence, it was your idea that you tutor Mr. Tarkington at his apartment, was it not?”

  Lucy bristled. “No. It was not my idea.”

  Mattingly smiled. “Wasn’t there a special program being held at the library and the study rooms were very limited that evening?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No. There was a program but we wouldn’t have had a problem getting a study room. Mr. Tarkington said he needed to work at his apartment because someone was dropping by some expensive law books and he didn’t want them to be left in the hall.”

  “Ms. Hatfield, let’s just cut to the chase. You’ve been pursuing a relationship with Mr. Tarkington for a long time, haven’t you?” Mattingly placed his hands on his hips.

  Megan saw anger flash in Lucy’s eyes. “I have never pursued a relationship with him.”

  “You suggested that you tutor him at his apartment on other occasions before the night of the alleged incident, didn’t you?”

  Lucy locked eyes with Mattingly. “I have never suggested that.”

  “It was a well-known fact in the study group that you were infatuated with Mr. Tarkington and he wasn’t interested. Wasn’t it?’

  Megan saw Lucy’s anger deepen and blotches of red appeared on her neck. She knewthat Mattingly was doing what every good defense attorney did: He was asking questions that would plant seeds in the jury’s mind even if Lucy denied the allegation. He was pulling out all stops in this moment suggesting that Lucy wasn’t who she said she was and had an agenda of using rich men for their money.

  After doing years of trial work, Megan also knew that she had to be careful with her objections. Sometimes when a lawyer objected to a question the jury felt that a witness might have something to hide. It was always a delicate balancing act for the attorney. She decided not to object to Mattingly’s current questions and let Lucy answer.

  Mattingly switched directions. “You have sued Mr. Tarkington for money for the child you claim is his, haven’t you, Ms. Hatfield?

  “I’ve asked him to help support the child that was conceived because of the rape.”

  “Judge, this language is prejudicial. It has not been established that there was a rape. I ask that Ms. Hatfield’s answer be stricken from the record and she be ordered to respond yes or no.”

  Judge Crawford looked at Lucy. “Ms. Hatfield, simply answer the question yes or no.”

  “Yes.” Lucy’s words were sharp and hard.

  Megan could tell her nerves were frayed by Mattingly’s constant badgering and she was ready to explode. The last thing they needed was for Lucy to lose her composure. Megan knew that Mattingly was hoping she would.

  “It’s always about money, isn’t it, Ms. Hatfield,” Mattingly growled.

  Megan jumped up from her chair. “I object, Your Honor. Counsel is arguing with the witness,” she said, stabbing her finger on the defense table. She was suddenly so angry she could feel herself trembling.

  “Objection sustained,” Judge Crawford said.

  Mattingly paced back and forth in front of the witness stand with his hands clasped behind his back.

  “Ms. Hatfield, tell the jury, who is Edward Thompson.”

  Megan looked at Lucy. She could see that Lucy was taken aback.

  “He was a friend of mine.” Lucy looked down briefly and back up at Mattingly.

  “More like a lover? A married lover. “ Mattingly gazed at Lucy over the top of his half glasses.

  “We had an affair,” she said softly.

  “He had an important job, didn’t he?” Mattingly rubbed his chin. “Something like the head of the IT division for all the schools and licensing agencies in D.C.”

  Lucy nodded. “Yes. He helped run the computer system for the law school and the agency that administers the bar exam. “

  Mattingly walked over to the defense table, leaned against it, and crossed his arms.

  “And why did this relationship end?”

  Lucy shifted in her seat.

  “His wife found out, didn’t she?” A smiled appears on Mattingly’s face.

  “There were a variety of reasons. I don’t know if she knew about us or not.”

  “Ms. Hatfield, you graduated from law school and sat for the bar exam in February 2013.” Mattingly took off his glasses and held them in his hand.

  “That’s correct.”

  “And you failed the exam, correct?”

  Lucy cleared her throat. “Yes.”

  Megan looked at the jury. They were locked on every word Lucy was saying.

  “You took the exam again the next time it was offered, didn’t you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Lucy sat for a moment collecting her thoughts. “I didn’t know if I wanted to be a lawyer.”

  Mattingly’s expression changed. He walked up to the witness stand. “Ms. Hatfield, let me be sure I have this right
. You’ve gone through law school and have taken the bar exam and failed. And then you wondered if you wanted to be a lawyer?”

  Megan could see how uncomfortable Mattingly was making Lucy.

  “I did an internship with a law firm for a year during my last year in law school. I got to see what the practice of law was really like. I wasn’t sure when I sat for the bar the first time whether I even wanted to be a lawyer but I went ahead and took the test. When I failed I just decided to wait and give myself some time to decide whether being a lawyer was what I really wanted to do with my life.”

  “And you waited a few years before you decided to take the bar again?” Mattingly asked.

  Lucy nodded.

  “It was just two years a

  Lucy said that she’d eventually decided that she would take the exam and try to get a job in business law. She had learned from the internship that she didn’t like trial work.

  “And this was the only reason you delayed retaking the bar exam? No other reasons?” Mattingly asked, moving his pen in the air accentuating his words. He turned and stared straight at her.

  “Yes. That is the only reason.”

  Mattingly looked directly at Megan and a smile crawled across his face. “No further questions, Your Honor.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

  Judge Crawford looked up at the clock on the wall. It was now nine sharp. He greeted the jury and told them what the day’s agenda would be. “We are ready to proceed,” he said nodding towards his court reporter.

  “Ms. O’Reilly, when we stopped yesterday Mr. Mattingly had just finished his cross examination of Ms. Hatfield. Do you have any more questions of her before she is excused from the witness stand?”

  “Yes, Your Honor. I do.” Megan stood up and walked over to Lucy.

  “Please tell the jury why you sued Bob Relford.”

  Lucy cleared her throat. “I put twenty thousand dollars toward the purchase price of a piece of property, a cabin in the woods that Bob and I were buying together. He said he would put my name on the deed. He never did. “

  “And Mr. Logan?”

  “Our relationship ended because our lives were going in different directions. Plain and simple. It had nothing to do with money. “

  Megan cast a glance at the jury. Her lawyer instinct told her that her brief questioning had probably repaired any damage Mattingly had been able to do to Lucy’s credibility on his cross examination. “I have no further questions for Ms. Hatfield.” She turned and walked back to the defense table.

  Judge Crawford excused Lucy from the witness stand. “Next witness please.”

  Megan called Deputy Kyle Baker of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. He had been the one to take Lucy’s statement at the hospital on the night of the incident.

  Detective Baker told the jury that he had received a call from the Community hospital at around 11 p.m. on April 20, 2016, regarding a woman who was being treated in the ER. She had told the hospital staff that she was the victim of a rape and wanted to make a report to the authorities. The officer told the jury that when he arrived at the hospital he was taken to the room where the victim was being treated.

  “Do you see that woman here in this courtroom?” Megan asked the witness.

  “Yes.” Detective Baker pointed at Lucy.

  “How did Ms. Hatfield appear when you saw her in the hospital on April 20, 2016?”

  “Shook. Very upset. I could tell she had been crying.” The detective looked down at his notepad. “She had some scratches on her arm and bruising.”

  “Did you take any photos?”

  “Yes,”

  Megan retrieved a small stack of photos from the exhibit table and approached the witness. “Let me hand you what I have marked as the People’s exhibit A in six parts and ask you what these are.”

  The detective took the photos from Megan and looked through them. “These are the photos of the scratches and bruising I saw on Ms. Hatfield when I interviewed her at the hospital.”

  Megan took back the pictures and arranged them neatly in her hand. “Judge, I would ask for permission to show the photos to the jury. Mr. Mattingly has been provided a copy of these in our discovery material.”

  “Granted,” Judge Crawford said.

  Megan walked over and handed the photos to the jury foreman. She waited while each juror looked at them. Then she collected the photos and approached the court reporter. “I would move to enter the People’s Exhibit A into the record.”

  Judge Crawford approved the request and directed the court reporter to show the pictures as entered as part of the record.

  “Detective, to your knowledge did Ms. Hatfield submit to a rape kit test at the hospital?”

  “Yes, the doctor and hospital staff had completed the exam by the time I arrived.”

  “Once a rape kit exam is completed, what ordinarily happens to the samples taken during the exam?”

  The sound of squeaking leather could be heard as the detective shifted in his chair.

  “The rape kit is sent to the D.C Metropolitan Police Department for processing and is held there until any trial that takes place.”

  Megan walked back to the prosecution table and sat down. “Does the D.C. police department have Ms. Hatfield’s rape kit results?”

  The detective shook his head. “No, ma’am.” He paused and looked at the jury. “Her kit results were brought to the department. “ He paused again. “However, Ms. Hatfield’s kit was accidentally destroyed. “

  Megan let his words hang in the air. After a moment she turned around and looked the detective straight in the eye. “How could something like this happen,” she asked incredulously.

  The detective shook his head and a small red blotch appeared on his neck. He was silent for a few moments, then looked up and glanced at the jury, then back at Megan. He explained that a series of police departments along the East coast, including the D.C. police department, had accidentally destroyed several hundred rape kits in an effort to reduce a backlog of kits in storage. Some of the destroyed kits belonged to victims who were not cooperating with the police department in their investigations or were not wanting to pursue charges—others belonged to victims who needed the results for a trial.

  “This whole mess was a combination of understaffing and poor communication. Unfortunately, Ms. Hatfield’s rape kit testing samples were among those that got destroyed.”

  “So to be clear, Ms. Hatfield cooperated with the authorities and submitted to the rape kit exam but the results were destroyed—due to no fault of Ms. Hatfield’s.”

  “That’s correct, ma’am. It was the department’s fault.”

  Megan looked at the detective. She could see that he was embarrassed to have to admit that the authorities had committed such a major screw-up. She glanced at the jury. They were looking at the detective with shocked disbelief.

  “I have no further questions.” Megan walked back to the prosecution table and sat down.

  The judge invited Mattingly’s cross examination.

  “Thank you, Your Honor.”

  Mattingly leaned over, whispered something to Tarkington, and then stood up. “From looking at the photos, wouldn’t you agree detective that these injuries could have happened in a variety of ways?”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “Yes sir.”

  “They appear to be scratches and a little bruising on someone’s arm.” Mattingly studied the photos. “I don’t see any larger areas that look like a handprint, do you?”

  “No sir. “

  “And there is no DNA to connect these injuries to my client, is there?”

  The officer looked down at his notepad and then up at Mattingly. “No sir. All DNA was destroyed before it could be tested. “

  “I have no further questions. Thank you.”

  Next Megan called Dr. Keith Winston, the doctor who was working in the ER the night Lucy came in. She asked him a series of questions establishing his educational and work ba
ckgrounds.

  “Tell the jury, how did you meet Ms. Hatfield?”

  Dr. Winston said that he had been on call the night Lucy came to the emergency room.

  “Ms. Hatfield reported she had been the victim of a rape.”

  “Who was the alleged perpetrator?”

  Dr. Winston looked down at his notes. “A Craig Tarkington.”

  “What did Ms. Hatfield tell you about what had happened that evening?”

  Dr. Winston told the jury that Lucy reported she had been hired to tutor Craig Tarkington for his final law school exam. On the night of the incident she had been tutoring him at his apartment.

  “Was she able to relay to you what had happened?”

  The doctor nodded. He told the jury what Lucy had reported to him about the attack. It was exactly the same as her testimony.

  “When you were talking to her, how did Ms. Hatfield appear to you?” Megan cast a quick glance at Tarkington. He was looking down at the table.

  “When I came into the examination room I immediately noticed that her clothing was torn and she was very upset.” Dr. Winston told the jury he initially conducted a basic

  evaluation of Lucy. He said her blood pressure was extremely high and she was shaking and crying.

  “Was a rape kit completed?” Megan scribbled something on her legal pad.

  “Yes, that’s a typical procedure in these cases. The nurses stayed with Ms. Hatfield for around a half hour helping her calm down. After that I proceeded to conduct the rape kit exam.”

  “Please tell the jury what that involved.”

  Dr. Winston looked at the jury. “I conducted a full body scan for bruising and any external injury. I also checked to see if she had any internal injuries by palpating her abdomen. I could feel some swelling and ordered x rays. The x rays confirmed that she had sustained some internal bruising. I also did a vaginal examination and took samples of any fluids. “The doctor paused. “It was obvious from my exam that she had had intercourse and there was some vaginal tearing.”

  “In examining Ms. Hatfield, did you notice anything about her that caused you concern or made you think she might be making a false report?”

  “No.”

  “In your career, have you had women make false reports about being raped?”